3,547 Firearm Users Licenses were granted to private citizens between 2018 and 2023.

The figure was given in the Senate today by National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, who also gave a breakdown in the approvals by year.

Quite notably, there was a steep drop in 2022 and 2023 compared to the preceding years.

The Minister said between 2018 and 2023, there were 13,042 FUL applications from private citizens, businesspersons and private security companies.

Dis-aggregated by month, these figures also showed a lower number of applications in 2022 and 2023, compared to the previous years.

The Minister also earlier clarified that with regard to security companies, one FUL is issued per company, along with a number of Firearm Users Employees Certificates.

According to the Minister, 89 private security companies have been granted FULs.

The company with the largest number of FUECs is Amalgamated Security Services Ltd, with 570.